


such terror is no loss

by theviolonist



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Gen, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-06
Updated: 2013-02-06
Packaged: 2017-11-28 10:29:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theviolonist/pseuds/theviolonist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Orpheus can’t remember the injunction. He tells himself he can’t, anyway. He tells himself he’s turning to ask Eurydice what it was he was or wasn’t supposed to do. It’s a complicated kind of cowardice with which he looks at her.</i> (<a href="http://chinamieville.net/post/20675897361/4-final-orpheuses">x</a>)</p>
            </blockquote>





	such terror is no loss

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [multifandom women comment ficathon](http://fluffyfrolicker.livejournal.com/35323.html).

She'll tell him she was waiting. The truth is, she wasn't. She gave up waiting for him as soon as she set foot in the throne room. (She'll tell herself she died walking in the tall grass. She offered her heel to the snake, like a present wrapped in wedding-dress silk.)

*

She's surprised when he bursts into the room; but there's no time for surprise, not when he kisses her, bruising, not when he says, "We have to leave."

His eyes are frightened. They're not human eyes, she thinks as she puts on her shoes to follow him. They're animal eyes. 

*

(She died on the day of her wedding. She knows he played mourning songs for her, and it's the only thing she wishes she would've stayed for.)

*

He tells her the rules quickly, without really looking at her. His eyes dart in every direction between murmurs. She listens, quiet, immobile. 

"Yes," she says when he needs her to, and she nods. 

*

(He used to be a musician. They'll tell her later that he played the lyre to convince them to let her go, but she won't believe them.)

*

He takes her hand. The tunnel is long, and she thinks she's been living here for months but it's only the second time she's been in it. It's a peculiar thing: a tunnel that is only permanent, a way in or a way out, but forever, for eternity. Eurydice isn't sure if she's comfortable with that. 

*

She feels the twitch in his hand before he turns around. It's a conscious decision, she thinks; maybe it's Zeus punishing her for losing faith in him, maybe it's Aphrodite's reward for being an unfaithful wife, and maybe it's just him, his essential selfishness. 

*

He emerges in the light before her. Half of his body is turned towards the outside, bathed in the glaze of dawn, before he turns to her.

*

He wants to ask her for directions, she sees when he opens his mouth. The darkness is already sucking her back in, but she wishes she could say: I don't know, I've only been here once before, just like you.

*

She doesn't resent him. She doesn't resent him more than she does everyone else. She unties her shoelaces, and she walks back to the castle. The light was too bright for me, anyway, she thinks.

*

She'll tell him she was waiting. The truth is, she wasn't. She gave up waiting for him the first time she saw light turn to darkness.


End file.
